Honest Babes

Holland Park (012) is one of Nails Inc.'s "neon shades." Sephora describes it as "neon purple." I don't have an issue with the purple part of that description. It is purple, but with quite a bit more red than blue. But neon? Not hardly. There's been a bit of news floating around about how real neons can't be manufactured in the US, but Holland Park is made in the UK. So really, there's no excuse for this polish to not be neon.

I had trouble capturing the exact color of Holland Park, so I had to do a little color adjustment on these next few pictures.

This is pretty similar to what I'm seeing on my nails right now. So totally not neon.

My nails are darker than the color that's visible in the bottle, but that makes sense. This polish is so thin, sheer and watery that I ended up with four or possibly five coats. That's not a typo. I like sheer polish, but not if it's going to go on unevenly like Holland Park did. You can see how sheer it is in both the top of the bottle and especially around the edges of my nails. This is even more obvious in person. I could be a better painter when doing my nails, but when I do four coats and can't even get a color opaque in the middle of my nails... Houston, we have a polish problem.

Had I swatched Holland Park before buying it, there's no way it would be in my collection today. I actually like the color, but the unevenness and sheerness bothers me. I feel like there must be a similar color in my collection that would take way less fiddling and finessing when used. This is not worth the US$9.50 I paid, and I'd urge you to swatch this (if at all possible) if you're thinking of buying it. If you want a neon nail polish, both Essie and Orly have neon collections out and China Glaze has one coming out soon. I haven't tried any of them, but they're bound to be better than Holland Park.

When I saw that one of the new nails inc. colors on Sephora's website was named Baker Street, I had to take a second look. "Eh, it's blue," I thought to myself. "Would I want it if it didn't make me think of Sherlock Holmes?" With some hesitation, I ordered it and received it a few days ago. It's slightly darker and more vibrant in the bottle than the "swatch" on Sephora's website, but I still wasn't totally sold on it.

Until I tried it out last night. Two coats and you get vibrant blue goodness. It's like a medium blue but brighter. It's even better on the nail than in the bottle! I am shocked by how much I like this. I'd wholeheartedly recommend Baker Street if you generally like blues or you want to try incorporating more color into your wardrobe and you want to start out small. Or if you're a fan of Sherlock, of course.

Unfortunately I couldn't quite get a decent, color-accurate picture. This polish is way better than my pictures show. This is the color the pictures originally show, which is lighter than the actual color:

Slightly better pictures ahead...

**CAUTION: NERD(LACQUER) ALERT** I am going to be geeking out for the Trek-esque polishes because they bring back such good memories. A great color of polish is wonderful, but it's even better when it evokes a feeling or memory. That's what I think at any rate.

My first choice of NerdLacquer to swatch was Warrior Ethos because I must admit that I prefer the Klingons over the Vulcans (Purely Logical) and the Romulans (Cold & Calculating.) Three coats by itself was perfect opacity. If I hold my finger up to the light, I can see my nail tip, but otherwise it looks opaque. I love the different colors and sizes of glitter in Warrior Ethos- everything just works for me. I think this is a great unconventional holiday red and I've been surprised by how well it's worn for me.

A lot of pictures... for serious!

This is the culmination of things I've found interesting over the last few days. Sorry, no pictures! The ones I wanted to add kinda stink, so I need to retake them. 

I've been waiting on Ulta to get the OPI Muppets collection, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon. At this point, I may forgo the Muppets and save for the Holland collection instead. Thanks a Windmillion is killing me softly. And speaking of pale greens (I'm surprised this trend is still going, to be honest), I am DYING to get my hands on the Spring 2012 Dior green called Waterlily. Here it is on the nail.

And speaking of Ulta, apparently OPI is discontinuing 14 colors: Calendar Girl, Sit Under the Apple Tree, Give Me A Coral Sometime, Peach-a-boo!, Red Hot Ayers Rock, Chapel of Love, Bullish on OPI, Take the Stage, My Big Break, Paint My Moji-toes Red, Bronzed to Perfection, Clubbing til Sunrise, Bling Dynasty and Chopsticking to My Story. From what I understand, they may all be on sale, two for US$10, but I didn't receive that Ulta ad so I don't have the exact details. (Thankfully this was reported on Ulta's Facebook page.) To be honest, I'm kind of surprised that a majority of those colors are still around.

Is it me or do these Inglot flakies look like the Nails Inc Gossip Girl flakies?

Did Karl Lagerfeld actually have anything to do with the cosmetics and nail polish for a Sephora line? If only WWD was free to read online! Not that I'm a fan of his or anything...

Does anyone else randomly check magazine giveaway pages? I'm not really digging Glamour's stuff this month, but People StyleWatch has the Kardashian Kolors from Nicole and Lucky has Zoya. I really want the Guerlain set from StyleWatch. And speaking of the Kardashians, I support this.

No joke, I have about a hundred different comments about this report from Cleveland on CND's Shellac. Yes, you do have to do research into any beauty treatment you're thinking about getting... unless you're making a snap decision on the spot. You can only do so much in that case. And sure, looking at bottles is probably a good idea, but that isn't the first thing I think of when I'm getting a pro manicure. (The last time I got my tips done with regular polish, the manicurist used clear polish as a base coat, then base coat as top coat before sticking me under a lamp. Whaaaat?) I'm not surprised that some people had wear issues since it seems that not everyone applying Shellac knows what they're doing. But I think it's cool that this news team looked into something nail-related!

If none of that was even remotely interesting, maybe this video will be worth your time. I laugh every time I watch it.

The Wyndham Collection, AKA the Blair duo from the Gossip Girls collection, includes a teal crème as a base color and a flakie top coat meant for layering. Kensington (381) looks like a dark teal when you apply it, but dries a darker teal black as the description says. As long as you don't wipe too much polish off before you apply it, it is a one coater. One coat of The Wyndham (401) gives you a good amount of flakies that are green, blue green or blue, depending on the angle of your nail.

I'm really impressed with The Wyndham duo. The flakies are very visible unless you're in the dark and very smooth, too. The whole duo is US$20, and I'm not sure Kensington is unique enough to account for half that price. At least it applies decently. The Wyndham is certainly worth the other half of the price. I wish it was available by itself!These flakies are pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

While trying to make my list for the in store and online Sephora Friends and Family sale, I've trawled through more products than I care to count. In case it might be helpful, I'm providing some links and a little commentary here in case you don't feel like going through and looking for all the nail polish items on Sephora. It's very "wall of text," so if you want the highlights right now, here they are: Givenchy has a polish out, some of the nail stickers from Sephora's brand are super cute, and Nails Inc now has flakies for us!Read more »

I picked up three of the Halloween nail polish offerings from Fantasy Makers (AKA Wet n Wild) last week or the week before. (Halloween creep is not as bad as Christmas creep, but Halloween paraphernalia still coming earlier than I had expected!) I figured they were cheap enough and worth a try since the colors weren't so bad. I didn't opt for the glow in the dark polish since I have more of those than I'll ever need. The big downsides on these are the potential for slightly wonky, fluffy, stick-y out-y brushes (which I noticed on quite a few bottles) and the tombstone tops that never twist on fully flush to the bottle unless you repeatedly twist the tops on and off until you're satisfied.

Purple Potion (12420) is black with purple microglitter.  The glitter is slightly darker and finer than the glitter in Lippmann's Bad Romance. It only took two coats to get opacity, which surprised me. The glitter is not as blingy on the nail as it is in the bottle, which is kind of a bummer. It also dries to a satin finish, so I'd suggest top coat unless that's the effect you're going for. I put two top coats on and Purple Potion is still not as shiny as I'd like it to be. I had no problem seeing the shimmer under fluorescent lighting, though, so this isn't dark and drab. Yay Halloween!

I ordered a bunch of new (to me) Nails Inc. colors as soon as I noticed that they were on Sephora's website.  I also ordered the Kensington Caviar top coat, which I'd heard good things about.  I have yet to try four of the other polishes that I bought, but here are some preliminary thoughts about what I have tried thus far.

There are two collection sets available right now.  Each has four 10 mL polishes for US$25, which is cheaper than buying each polish individually.  (That would be $38.)  If you like the colors in each set, they're a great deal.  According to Nails Inc., Sephora is the "world exclusive launch for the autumn winter collection."

The Neutral Collection consists of Elizabeth Street (510; light bubblegum pink with subtle shimmer), Jermyn Street (071; mauve crème), The Thames (also 510?; dark gray crème), and Porchester Square (161; light gray beige crème.)  Elizabeth Street and Porchester Square are one and done lacquers if you're in a hurry.  The latter is surprisingly pigmented at one coat, while the former is sheer but not streaky at one coat.  All four look great at two coats.  I ended up doing four coats of Elizabeth Street, but I couldn't get it evenly opaque.  (It looks more opaque on Tobywoo, so opacity may be possible in fewer coats than I used.)  Jermyn Street did look more brown in some lights, which makes sense as Sephora describes it as "pink brown."  The Thames and Porchester Square also available with a cute crystal-embellished cap for $19.50.  All four of these polishes are also available individually with normal caps.

Bottles in the same order as above:

Nails Inc. will apparently be available here in the US at select Sephora stores in August.  After my initial heart palpitations subsided, I read through the list of stores and my excitement turned to sadness.  Alas, I don't think any of the Sephora stores in my state are going to carry Nails Inc.  But there's always hope that Sephora.com will be carrying these.  Especially since Nails Inc. says that Sephora will be receiving the Autumn/Winter 20111 collection first!

Nails Inc. did a limited edition collaboration last fall with Cadbury for their Daily Milk Bliss bar.  The two shades were Vanilla Bliss and Cocoa Bliss.  Thanks to a gift from a lovely friend across the pond, I have Vanilla Bliss!  Nails Inc. polishes have a big cap, and the brush isn't like that of OPI's, but give it a sec.  You'll soon get the hang of 'em and then you'll be able to polish like a pro.  (Mind you, after looking at my swatches, I am slightly horrified they turned out like they did!)  Vanilla Bliss is a beige with significant gold sparkle/microshimmer in the bottle.  Indoors, without a lot of light, the shimmer isn't as pronounced.  But get in full sun and you'll really be able to see it.  This is a nice neutral, and although it is warm, I didn't think it looked all that bad on me.  There are better colors, sure, but I actually like this one because of the shimmer.No pictures outside of the cut this time...